The European Medicines Agency has recommended that COVID-19 vaccines for the 2024-25 vaccination campaign should be updated to target the new JN.1 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which it says “globally overtook the previously circulating XBB family of variants between December 2023 and January 2024.”
Updated COVID-19 Vaccines Should Target New JN.1 Variant, Says EMA
Variant vaccine approvals can be based on manufacturing/quality and non-clinical data as long as data on earlier vaccines support the predictability of clinical immunogenicity and reactogenicity.

More from Europe
Pharmaceutical companies are being encouraged to reach out to NICE in relation to its HTA Innovation Lab, which provides a sandbox environment in which the health technology assessment body can test new methods of evaluating “innovative and disruptive” therapies.
The weight management drug, Mysimba, continues to demonstrate a positive benefit-risk balance but the data available are not sufficient to fully determine the cardiovascular safety beyond 12 months. Meanwhile, Currax this month announced the publication of a peer-reviewed study of Mysimba that followed patients for over 4.7 years and found no evidence of excess cardiovascular risk.
Health technology assessment body NICE said it has taken on feedback about the implications of allowing higher cost-effectiveness thresholds for some medicines after senior health economists offered diverging views on its methods.
The European Medicines Agency has recommended five drugs for EU-wide approval , including Averoa’s Xoanacyl for concomitant hyperphosphatemia. Two companies have withdrawn their marketing authorization applications.
More from Geography
Experts say PBMs should become familiar with transparency rules and prepare to release data, although more legal wrangling could occur.
Optum Rx, one of the largest PBMs in the US, declared it was the “first comprehensive, transparent pharmacy services company” after announcing several consumer-friendly changes.
FDA Commissioner Martin Makary was sworn in Friday and knew of the plan that ultimately lead to CBER director Peter Marks' resignation on 28 March.